Phil still feeling good despite weed-infested 74

Phil Mickelson says he has a fool-proof plan to handle Oakmont over four days. Only problem Thursday was he didn't execute it. Lefty said his ailing left wrist is fine, but he enters Friday's second round trying to play catch up from 4-over 74.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.com Correspondent

OAKMONT, Pa. -- The shooting pain is history.

It's been replaced by a black-and-blue annoyance, which he's keeping under a black wrap.

And the game? Well, it's just fine thank you. Not as good as Phil Mickelson expected, but for his first 18 holes -- and considering where he played from most of the afternoon -- an opening 74 here at the 107th U.S. Open is pretty damn good.

Try hitting just five fairways and eight greens and shooting 4-over anywhere, let alone at Oakmont. But here? With tilted greens and all-consuming rough? The course won the opening round here. Two players under par. Most everyone else walking off exhausted.

"This is the USGA dream here," Mickelson said, drawing a laugh. "And I've got in my mind a way to shoot around par, but I didn't execute today and the next three days I've got to execute better and hopefully as the tournament goes on I'll strike it better and better."

Applying that theory to Thursday's round, he at least scored better on the way in. Starting on the back nine, he was 4-over after 10 holes. Then after finding the rough on three consecutive shots on the first hole -- his 10th -- he pulled it together and parred in.

And, to answer your question, the answer is no. The wrist didn't affect his 74.

Per se, as he said.

"It was the last couple weeks not being able to prepare," Mickelson said. "I felt rusty, hit some hybrids off the tee to try to get it into play and missed the fairway more than I had been and that's what was difficult."

He limited himself to hitting four drivers Thursday -- "Missed two to the left, two to the right," he said. "I'm trying to stay balanced" -- and went with hybrids or irons the rest of the way.

"I'm okay with missing fairways with drivers, I understand that may happen, but when I'm hitting the hybrid I've got to get it in play and the first 10 or so holes I wasn't able to do that," he said. "And thereafter I hit eight pars coming in and was able to keep myself in it for tomorrow."

On the whole, impressive for a guy who couldn't hit balls last Friday. And one who hasn't played 18 holes in two or three weeks. And one who was still in pain last week. Even if we are talking about the second-ranked player in a the world, a three-time major champion and a guy whose short game is bordering on legendary.

Mickelson, who has had cortisone shots and has been getting treatments on the wrist, did take his hand off the club several times when he was hitting out of deep rough but said it wasn't because of pain.

"I felt like the first couple where the lie wasn't very good I didn't want to go after it and jar it that early in the round, so I let go and it took away any type of jarring there at the end," he said.

When Mickleson bogeyed three of five holes in mid-round -- 16, 18 and the first -- his round could have gone either way. He thought he had a chance to birdie five holes coming in, but settled for that string of pars.

"I made 14 pars today, I felt I could have made a couple more," he said. "I felt I could have made par on 16 and 18 with a decent putt, but it's okay.

"I think I'm below the winning score. I think I'm not in a position where I have to make birdies. I will just keep making pars and four pars is like a birdie. "

Making those clutch putts coming in . . . he saw it as the difference in shooting himself out of the tournament or having another chance to win his first Open.

Mickelson kept his left hand in his pocket during his interview and went straight to his car where trainer Jim Weathers was waiting for him. Weathers has been treating it with "stuff" -- Mickelson's word -- and light (massaging) treatments to push out the swelling.

The plan was to ice it tonight and have a few treatments before his 8:06 a.m. ET tee time Friday morning. No practice before the second round, maybe 30-minute sessions before his tee times on Saturday and Sunday.

But don't assume that means he's thinking about winning this tournament -- and start erasing the memory of last year's 72nd hole at Winged Foot. Not yet, anyway.

"We've got a long ways to go," he said. "I just need one good round tomorrow to get me in it for the weekend. I fought the last eight holes to keep me in it and if I do well tomorrow, that's all I care about."

That and keeping his wrist under wraps and in the black-and-blue aggravating range on the pain scale.